If this is your first visit, be sure to
check out the FAQ by clicking the
link above. You may have to register
before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages,
select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Threaded View

Day before Thanksgiving hive check..

this might ramble a bit.. but.. .
I have 2 hives.. hive A and hive B... now the setup this year i moved to under the large fishing shelter.. its a roof about 20 x 12 and about 8 ft up. next to the pond. the year before i had the bees in the garden and it got so hot it cooked the hives and i had honey pouring out the bottom. so to the shelter it went. it protects it from the worst of the sun. is close to water. protects from any hail damage as well as a bonus. gets sun in the morning.. and in the evening.
(not to mention the super hot weather we had this year and the bad bad drought the shelter really protected the bees this year..)
now hive A (2 deeps) is closer to the house than hive B (a deep and a medium) by .. well a hives length lol.but its the easiest way for me to make notes on them. about 2 months ago. hive B had a smell coming from it.. so I suited up and checked both hives out. Hive B had either chilled brood.(we did have a cold snap a few days before). or European foul brood.. no American foul brood thank god.. bee larva on the edges mostly were dead. hive A had the beginnings. so i made some medicated powder sugar and gave them each a couple tablespoons sprinkled over.I also put in some new hive beetle traps i bought..
Disposable Beetle Blasters just add the oil and put in between the frames they sit near the top..got mine from mann lake.. during this time. i also put sugar syrup in the hive top feeders. A. went gang busters on theirs. B. didn't.. theirs went moldy after a couple of weeks since they never even ate any so i cleaned theirs out.. and added a little fresh syrup to the cleaned feeder thinking maybe i made a bad batch or that them having sick and dead brood meant less bees needing food.. well fast forward to day before thanksgiving.. its warm. probably last warm day we will have till next year. its near 70 it was running only to the 50's last few days before... perfect day for checking the hives with a light breeze coming in. i get my gear together. i made some hivetop feeders for bee fondant.. (shallows with excluders tacked to the bottoms to hold the food.)..and brought those with.. to prepare for the winter. i get down there.. hive A.. the beetle traps.. 3 traps. had at least 9 per. if not more. and i saw a couple beetles running around the frames. one frame i pulled out they were going into each cell and then back out like they were searching for stuff.. not a whole lot of pollen tho there were some .. sort of light on honey. tho not too worrisome they had a fair store. saw one larva. not sure if was a beetle.. or wax moth that was in a area bees could not get to.. i killed it. all the frames looked clean had lots of eggs and bee babies.. no beetle or wax moth damage.gave them a couple spoons medicated powder as preventative because of last checkups problems.(possible European foul brood last check that was in hive B) they had cleaned the hive top feeder of all syrup.. took that one off.. put the new feeder for the fondant on.. and gave them a good chunk to nibble on. replaced the cover. and went to hive B. hive B's honey stores were considerably heavier. even being a medium compared to hive A's deep. they had more pollen it seemed too. checked the beetle traps B also had 3 traps in it.. they had less beetles in them. also saw maybe one. or 2 beetles running around. lot less than hive A. found one larvae under some gunk the bees tried to glue the traps down with lol.killed that.. checked the frames. the deeps had nice brood pattern lots of bee babies and eggs. no signs of the earlier possible foul brood. also plenty it seemed of pollen stores around the babies.. the medium was chock full of honey.. i added the 2 tbs of medicated powder as a preventative... added the new feeder and gave them a chunk of fondant. (will see in a couple weeks if they will eat theirs..) but from my observations of the 2.. what i thought was the stronger hive hive A.. is not. and what i thought was a weak hive hive B is..it almost seemed that hive B had less activity.. and since they never took syrup.. well was not sure what to think. one thing i didn't mention.. Hive a is a 10 frame.. no divider to spread them out.. . hive B is also a 10 frame. but has the metal dividers. and only 9 frames in each box. so 2 less frames in it. im curious.. is the Divided frames allowing more room what made them do better? less beetles. as they can get around things. verses hive A where the frames are all close and not as much it seems.. room. well i guess i will see in the spring.. it is a interesting experiment. i might just go to all metal dividers.. sure made taking the frames out easier..lol.

Smart man knows that the road is a one way street..
Wise man looks both ways anyhow.......